


a love like religion

by komet



Category: The Maze Runner (Movies), The Maze Runner Series - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Boys In Love, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Nightmares, Spoilers for The Death Cure, The Death Cure, Trauma, minho has a nickname for thomas it’s cute, newt is only mentioned sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-09
Updated: 2018-03-09
Packaged: 2019-03-28 22:11:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13913214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/komet/pseuds/komet
Summary: Those simulations that WCKD put him through always felt real, felt so real. And it’s that feeling which leaves him questioning his own reality everyday that he stays in the Safe Haven. How long before the simulation ends? How long before he’s forced to watch his friends die in front of him yet again, after they thought they were safe?alternatively: minho has a nightmare and when he wakes up thomas is there, even if newt isn’t.





	a love like religion

**Author's Note:**

> welcome to the angst fest ! it gets better tho I swear

_He picks his head up at a commotion down the hall from the testing room, and he catches the doctors exchanging nervous glances. Minho snaps into awareness, looking around the room skeptically. What’s all the fuss about? He blinks as a burst of gunfire rings out, and a surge of elation rips through his chest. He dares to hope that his friends have finally found him, and Minho reels in shock as, sure enough, he sees Thomas barreling down the hall toward him. The brown-haired boy sees Minho and even from here he sees those amber eyes light up. It gets him moving._

_“Thomas!” He shouts, leaping up from the chair they’d sat him in. The doctors push him back down and he growls, struggling as hard as he can, but he’s drained from all the other tests they’ve run on him. Still, Thomas is the only thing that matters right now, and getting to him is the one thing he wants to accomplish._

_Another gunshot is the next thing he hears, and it freezes him for a moment. Clear, loud, absolute, cutting through the air like the crack of a whip. His world slows, then stops. He catches sight of Thomas again over the shoulders of a doctor, only this time...he’s on the ground._

_And he’s not moving._

_Adrenaline strikes him like lightning and he makes a wild effort to get up, thrasing around erratically and feeling an elbow connect with someone’s cheek. He scrambles up desperately, shaking badly and nearly falling all the way over in his mad dash to reach Thomas. His lungs seem to shut down as he slams the glass door open, the world moving in blurry flashes as he stumbles toward his friend. All he sees is red—a blossoming red cloud spreading across his friend’s torso, and it makes Minho sick to his stomach. He reaches out desperately, blind with devastation, but just before he’s about to touch him, the world snaps to absolute darkness._

He wakes up in the testing lab strapped to that damn machine, heart pounding and a scream ripping out of his throat violently. Minho jerks against his restraints, panic closing in on him, tears slipping out of his eyes before he knows what’s happening. God, it wasn’t real, it wasn’t real...He sobs with the relief, chest still heaving with ragged breaths. He snaps back up as he catches sight of one of the doctors approaching him with a syringe, and the panic comes crashing back in waves. “No, no,” he gasps, because he doesn’t know what will happen if they make him go back to sleep. He struggles fruitlessly as the woman plunges the needle into his arm, pushing down on the button and releasing the sedative into his system.

“ _Thomas_ ,” he whispers hoarsely, moments before the world fades into a heavy static.

//

_A similar scene plays out, only this time it isn’t Thomas. This times it’s Newt that rescues him, and the honest happiness on the blonde’s face squeezes his heart hard. But the same thing happens; a gunshot later, and Newt’s on the floor. Minho screams, yells, and makes an insane rush to get to his friend. And just like last time, the simulation ends abruptly before he can reach him._

//

He’d had all sorts of horrible visions of Thomas and Newt dying during his stay with WCKD. Sometimes it’d be the both of them, other times it was just the one. They’d get captured, killed, beaten. And every time, Minho never got the opportunity to get to them, to help them. Those simulations were just a small portion of everything he was forced to endure, but they rattled him to his core, moreso than anything else. It always felt real, felt so real.

And it’s that feeling which leaves him questioning his own reality everyday that he stays in the Safe Haven. How long before the simulation ends? How long before he’s forced to watch his friends die in front of him yet again, after they thought they were safe? How long until he wakes up from the evil world that Newt no longer lives in?

But this is real, it’s gotta be real. Somehow, impossibly, Newt’s death is real. And Minho doesn’t know if that’s worse.

//

The nightmares feel too much like the simulations. Each time he wakes up, he halfway expects to see the cold, gloomy WCKD facility around him. But tonight he’s proven wrong again, because he jolts awake from the horrible dream with a harsh gasp that makes his lungs hurt, and he sees immediately that he is not with WCKD. Wild eyes dart all around his surroundings, and he’s alarmed at first because it’s all dark.

Everything comes crashing back at once.

He’s in the hut he shares with Thomas, who’s sound asleep in the cot just a few yards from him. Moonlight, ocean waves, sand, the Safe Haven and everything that comes with it. He’s overwhelmed with it all, and he tumbles out onto the ground ungracefully, sprinting out of the hut and into the fresh, salty air of their beach. His unbalanced momentum sends him back down to the ground and he falls hard to his knees, fingers burrowing into the sand beneath them in a loose . His stomach lurches with heavy breaths that rack his whole body, and his chest feels tight with a terrible dread. The events that had triggered this freak out replay suddenly in his mind in quick, unclear images—Newt getting shot, Minho unable to save him, the burning wreckage of the Last City trapping him.

He’s yanked back into reality as he hears a voice. “Minho? Hey, Min, you alright?” Thomas says, voice tight with concern. Minho jumps to his feet defensively, reflexively, whirling around to face Thomas. Wide eyes fixate on the familiar features of his face, but that does nothing to stop the next words that tumble haltingly from his lips.

“Newt—where’s Newt? Where is he, Thomas? Where is he-“ he demands feverishly, staggering closer to his friend and searching his eyes pleadingly.

He swears he can actually see Thomas’s heart break as he shakes his head, gives Minho a second to remember himself. He does, and it’s enough to cause his knees to buckle and put him right back on the ground, shoulders slumped with an exhausted sort of defeat. He curls his hands into fists against the ground to stop them from shaking, squeezes his eyes shut and feels Thomas kneel in front of him.

“Hey, Min,” Thomas says softly, and Minho rocks back onto his heels to look at him, forcing away the tears that have clouded his vision. Thomas seems to be about to speak again but decides against it, simply opting to surge forward and envelope him in a fierce hug that nearly knocks him over. Minho accepts it without a moment’s hesitation, wrapping his arms tight around Thomas and holding him like he was scared to ever let go. And he really was, he was so afraid of those simulations becoming reality, afraid of losing Thomas.

“God, I’m sorry, Tomboy, I’m sorry,” Minho mutters once he’s got a grip, huffing as he readjusts his hold on Thomas, a tad less urgent and leaning more towards just wanting to hold him close.

“Shut up, Minho, it’s not your fault.” Thomas says into his shoulder, voice muffled as he seems to burrow his face further into Minho. He hums low in response, leaning back gradually to instead hold Thomas’s face between his hands, thumbs lightly brushing against the sides of his head. A flickering smile cracks Thomas’s visage of absolute sadness, and a sharp realization hits Minho like a bowling ball straight to the stomach. He loves Thomas, loves him so much that it hurts. He knew that already, of course, but it just...suddenly reoccurs to him right then. There’s no way he’ll ever lose Thomas—that becomes abundantly clear to him in that moment. They’ve lost too much, he’ll fight with everything in him to make sure they don’t lose each other.

With this in mind, Minho lets his forehead drop against Thomas’s, eyes closing as he puffs out a sigh through his nose. They stay like that for a while—Minho doesn’t know how long.

“Let’s get back to sleep, okay?” Thomas murmurs eventually, pulling away from him gently. Minho nods, moving to get up first, just to prove that he can and before Thomas can offer him a hand. He ends up helping to pull Thomas to his feet, and admittedly, he is a little shaky, nearly stumbling with his friend’s weight. But he doesn’t, aware that he’s shown quite enough weakness tonight.

They head back into the hut, beams of moonlight streaming in through the doorway as they begin to resettle. However, Thomas’s cot stays empty. Instead he clambers in next to Minho, partially on top of him, but that’s alright because it’s comfortable and warm anyway. Thomas is a reassuring weight against him, and he loops his arms firmly around the brunette, whose head has come to rest on his chest. It’s soothing, and sleep finds Minho easier than he expects it to; it doesn’t scare him anymore. So he drifts off into a deep rest, though it’s different than the drug-induced slumbers he’d been forced into before. It’s comforting, it’s warm and he finds solace in the steady thrum of Thomas’s heartbeat against his own.

The nightmares don’t find him again.

**Author's Note:**

> feedback is greatly, greatly appreciated!! let me know what I did wrong and what I did right! thank u for reading :’)


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